With more than 5,500 hours of television programming scheduled for the London Olympics, TV viewers can tune in to nearly every water polo splash, equestrian jump and table tennis smash.

But, really, how in the heck are people going to keep up with the action given all of the choices?

The confusing (and nearly constant) TV schedule is creating an opportunity for one Seattle startup. BuddyTV just launched its “2012 Olympics” mobile app quicklist, allowing summer couch potatoes to track the sporting action as it takes place across a number of cable channels.

Many Americans will likely try to navigate their cable company’s set-top box channel guide in order to track down the sports they want to view. And BuddyTV CEO Andy Liu thinks that’s a losing proposition, given that in the Seattle area viewers will have to jump between KING, MSNBC, BRAVO, NBC, CNBC and NBC Sports.

“Unless you have the patience to scroll through channels and times, it’s like finding a needle in the haystack to make sure you’re not missing the best content,” said Liu. “You might then resort to a TV Guide on mobile, but you’ll run into the same problem.”

BuddyTV’s “quicklist” puts all of the programming in the palm of your hand, organized by time, not by channel. It also allows users to pick their cable provider and time zone.

Liu said that there’s no faster way to find the sports you want to watch. An alert system also allows viewers to set reminders for certain sports, say the early boxing bouts at 5:30 a.m. on CNBC or the early rounds of tennis at 4 a.m. on Bravo.

“For many viewers, there is real anxiety over the potential of missing historic events,” said Liu, adding that the BuddyTV app will make it “really easy for users to remember and find the best events to watch.”

More than 211 million Americans watched the Beijing Olympics, and an equal number are expected to tune in to the action in London. According to Liu, roughly 61 percent of Americans say they plan to watch some of the Olympics this year on TV. Thirty-one percent say they plan to watch the sports on both TV and online.

John Cook is GeekWire's co-founder and editor, a veteran reporter and the longest-serving journalist on the Pacific Northwest tech startup beat. Follow him @johnhcook and email john@geekwire.com.

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Comments

demetriusjenkins79

There are so many hours of Olympics coverage coming up and
so precious little time to see everything. It seems like I have to work through
all of those hours, but I plan on using the Dish Remote App for my iPad to see
live coverage on NBC or stored shows on my DVR. It’ll be useful for my commute
to work at Dish or when I’m grilling a few more times before summer comes to an
end. I’m sad that baseball isn’t an Olympics event anymore, but maybe Team USA will bring
home the gold in hand ball.